Galaten 4:25

Staten Vertaling

Want dit, namelijk Agar, is Sina, een berg in Arabie, en komt overeen met Jeruzalem, dat nu is, en dienstbaar is is met haar kinderen.

Parallel Translations

Gereviseerde Leidse Vertaling
Hagar toch is de berg Sinai in Arabie; die komt overeen met het tegenwoordige Jeruzalem; want dat is met haar kinderen in slavernij.

Gereviseerde Lutherse Vertaling
want Hagar heet de berg Sina in Arabi, en komt overeen met het Jeruzalem, dat thans is, en dienstbaar is met hare kinderen.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

is: Galatians 4:24

Sinai: Deuteronomy 33:2, Judges 5:5, Psalms 68:8, Psalms 68:17, Hebrews 12:18

Arabia: Galatians 1:17, Acts 1:11

answereth to: or, is in the same rank with

her: Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34, Luke 19:44

Reciprocal: Genesis 16:3 - his Genesis 40:12 - The three Leviticus 25:1 - General Leviticus 25:10 - proclaim Leviticus 27:34 - in mount 1 Kings 10:15 - all the kings 1 Kings 11:36 - the city Isaiah 21:13 - Arabia Ezekiel 27:21 - Arabia Matthew 26:26 - this Mark 14:22 - this Luke 22:19 - is my Acts 2:11 - Arabians Acts 7:30 - there 1 Corinthians 10:4 - that Rock 2 Corinthians 11:20 - if a man bring Galatians 2:4 - bring Galatians 4:3 - in Revelation 21:2 - coming

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia,.... The Arabic version, instead of Arabia, reads "Balca". The Syriac version makes Hagar to be a mountain, reading the words thus, "for Mount Hagar is Sinai, which is in Arabia": and some have been of opinion that Sinai was called Hagar by the Arabians. It is certain, that ???, which may be pronounced Hagar, does signify in the Arabic language a stone or rock; and that one part of Arabia is called Arabia Petraea, from the rockiness of it; the metropolis of which was ????, or "Agara", and the inhabitants Agarenes; and Hagar was the name of the chief city of Bahrein, a province of Arabia r: and it may be observed, that when Hagar, with her son, was cast out, they dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, Genesis 21:21 which was near to Sinai, as appears from

Numbers 10:12 so that it is possible that this mount might be so called from her, though there is no certainty of it; and near to it, as Grotius observes, was a town called Agra, mentioned by Pliny s as in Arabia. However, it is clear, that Sinai was in Arabia, out of the land of promise, where the law was given, and seems to be mentioned by the apostle with this view, that it might be observed, and teach us that the inheritance is not of the law. It is placed by Jerom t in the land of Midian; and it is certain it must be near it, if not in it, as is clear from Exodus 3:1. And according to Philo the Jew u, the Midianites, as formerly called, were a very populous nation of the Arabians: and Madian, or Midian, is by w Mahomet spoken of as in Arabia; and it may be observed, that they that are called Midianites in Genesis 37:36 are said to be Ishmaelites,

Genesis 39:1 the name by which the Arabians are commonly called by the Jews. The apostle therefore properly places this mountain in Arabia. But after all, by Agar, I rather think the woman is meant: and that the sense is, that this same Agar signifies Mount Sinai, or is a figure of the law given on that mount.

And answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children; that is, agrees with and resembles the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of all the cities and towns in Judea; and she, being a bondwoman, represented that state of bondage the Jews were in, when the apostle wrote this, who were in a state of civil, moral, and legal bondage; in civil bondage to the Romans, being tributaries to the empire of Rome, and under the jurisdiction of Caesar; in moral bondage to sin, to Satan, to the world and the lusts of it, whose servants they in general were; and in legal bondage to the ceremonial law, which was a yoke of bondage: they were in bondage under the elements or institutions of it, such as circumcision, a yoke which neither they, nor their forefathers could bear, because it bound them over to keep the whole law; the observance of various days, months, times, and years, and the multitude of sacrifices they were obliged to offer, which yet could not take away sin, nor free their consciences from the load of guilt, but were as an handwriting of ordinances against them; every sacrifice they brought declaring their sin and guilt, and that they deserved to die as the creature did that was sacrificed for them; and besides, this law of commandments, in various instances, the breach of it was punishable with death, through fear of which they were all their life long subject to bondage: they were also in bondage to the moral law, which required perfect obedience of them, but gave them no strength to perform; showed them their sin and misery, but not their remedy; demanded a complete righteousness, but did not point out where it was to be had; it spoke not one word of peace and comfort, but all the reverse; it admitted of no repentance; it accused of sin, pronounced guilty on account of it, cursed, condemned, and threatened with death for it, all which kept them in continual bondage: and whereas the far greater part of that people at that time, the Jerusalem that then was, the Scribes, Pharisees, and generality of the nation, were seeking for justification by the works of the law, this added to their bondage; they obeyed it with mercenary views, and not from love but fear; and their comforts and peace rose and fell according to their obedience; and persons in such a way must needs be under a spiritual bondage.

r Castel. Lex. Polyglot. col. 804. s Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. t De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. H. u De Fortitudine, p. 741. w Koran, c. 7. p. 126.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For this Agar is Mount Sinai - This Hagar well represents the Law given on Mount Sinai. No one can believe that Paul meant to say that Hagar was literally Mount Sinai. A great deal of perplexity has been felt in regard to this passage, and Bentley proposed to cancel it altogether as an interpolation. But there is no good authority for this. Several manuscripts and versions read it, �For this Sinai is a mountain in Arabia;� others, �to this Hagar Jerusalem answereth,� etc. Griesbach has placed these readings in the margin, and has marked them as not to be rejected as certainly false, but as worthy of a more attentive examination; as sustained by some plausible arguments, though not in the whole satisfactory. The word Hagar in Arabic is said to signify a rock; and it has been supposed that the name was appropriately given to Mount Sinai, because it was a pile of rocks, and that Paul had allusion to this meaning of the word here. So Chandler, Rosenmuller, and others interpret it. But I cannot find in Castell or Gesenius that the word Hagar in Arabic has this signification; still less is there evidence that the name was ever given to Mount Sinai by the Arabs, or that such a signification was known to Paul. The plainest and most obvious sense of a passage is generally the true sense; and the obvious sense here is, that Hagar was a fair representation of Mount Sinai, and of the Law given there.

In Arabia - Mount Sinai is situated in Arabia Petraea, or the Rocky. Rosenmuller says that this means �in the Arabic language;� but probably in this interpretation he stands alone.

And answereth to Jerusalem - Margin, �Is in the same rank with.� The margin is the better translation. The meaning is, it is just like it, or corresponds with it. Jerusalem as it is now (that is, in the days of Paul), is like Mount Sinai. It is subject to laws, and rites, and customs; bound by a state of servitude, and fear, and trembling, such as existed when the Law was given on Mount Sinai. There is no freedom; there are no great and liberal views; there is none of the liberty which the gospel imparts to men. The word ?????????? sustoichei, �answereth to,� means properly to advance in order together; to go together with, as soldiers march along in the same rank; and then to correspond to. It means here that Mount Sinai and Jerusalem as it then was would be suited to march together in the same platoon or rank. In marshalling an army, care is taken to place soldiers of the same height, and size, and skill, and courage, if possible, together. So here it means that they were alike. Both were connected with bondage, like Hagar. On the one, a law was given that led to bondage; and the other was in fact under a miserable servitude of rites and forms.

Which now is - As it exists now; that is, a slave to rites and forms, as it was in fact in the time of Paul.

And is in bondage - To laws and customs. She was under hard and oppressive rites, like slavery. She was also in bondage to sin John 8:33-34; but this does not seem to be the idea here.

With her children - Her inhabitants. She is represented as a mother, and her inhabitants, the Jews, are in the condition of the son of Hagar. On this passage compare the notes at 1 Corinthians 10:4, for a more full illustration of the principles involved here.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 25. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia — ?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ????? ?? ?? ??????. This is the common reading; but it is read differently in some of the most respectable MSS., versions, and fathers; thus: ?? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??? ??????, for this Sinai is a mountain of Arabia; the word ????, Agar, being omitted. This reading is supported by CFG, some others, the AEthiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and one copy of the Itala; by Epiphanius, Damascenus, Ambrosiaster, Jerome, Augustine, Hilary, Sedulius, and Bede; and the word is sometimes, though not always, omitted by Cyril and Origen, which proves that in their time there were doubts concerning the common reading.

Of the word Agar in this verse, which renders the passage very obscure and difficult, Professor White says, forsitan delendum, "probably it should be expunged." Griesbach has left it in the text with a note of doubtfulness.

Answereth to Jerusalem — Hagar, the bond maid, bringing forth children in a state of slavery, answereth to Jerusalem that now is, ?????????, points out, or, bears a similitude to, Jerusalem in her present state of subjection; which, with her children-her citizens, is not only in bondage to the Romans, but in a worse bondage to the law, to its oppressive ordinances, and to the heavy curse which it has pronounced against all those who do not keep them.